How to get Sharing Details in App Designer

Hello,

is there a method to get the sharing details of the App Designer into my code.

For example I want to display the version and name of the app somewhere in my GUI without programming it directly. So when I create a new version of my app I only have to change the information in the sharing details and it will be updated in my GUI automatically.

Thanks!

[Volker]

I also would like to have access to that data. I personally do not understand why this is not accessible via e.g "app.Version". Furthermore this information should be used automatically ,or at least by option, when compiling an *.mlapp.

[1MB1]

The same in my case...

[Allen]

I too have an interest in a solution to this question. It can be quite cumbersome to have to remember to change the details in multiple locations each time an app is revised/updated versus being able to programmatically extract information from the Sharing Details fields.

[Harald Lehmann]

Hello,

also for me it would be helpful. The actual version number should be visible any time.

[Francisco Sacchetti]

me too

[Nico]

me too

[Anna H.]

I also would like to show the version in the userinterface of my app and access it programatically

[Jixiong Su]

me too

Answer 1

[Maxi]

Hello everyone,

I finally have a solution to this problem! You can get the metadata of the app with the following functions.

mlappMetaDataReader = mlapp.internal.MLAPPMetadataReader("app_name");
fileInfo = mlappMetaDataReader.readMLAPPMetadata();

I will now use this procedure in the startup functions of my applications:

app_name = mfilename();
mlappMetaDataReader = mlapp.internal.MLAPPMetadataReader(app_name);
fileInfo = mlappMetaDataReader.readMLAPPMetadata();

[Francisco Sacchetti]

It does not work in webapp:

2024-11-12 16:30:01 New session requested for "appGUIstart"

2024-11-12 16:30:08 Session for "appGUIstart" created successfully

2024-11-12 16:30:08 FATAL ERROR: Unable to resolve the name 'mlapp.internal.MLAPPMetadataReader'.

2024-11-12 16:30:08 Error in appGUIstart/startupFcn (line 743)

2024-11-12 16:30:08 Error in appdesigner.internal.service.AppManagementService/runStartupFcn (line 135)

2024-11-12 16:30:08 Error in matlab.apps.AppBase/runStartupFcn (line 68)

2024-11-12 16:30:08 Error in appGUIstart (line 4352)

2024-11-12 16:30:08 Error in appdesigner.internal.service.AppManagementService.runApp (line 100)

2024-11-12 16:30:08 Error in appdesigner.internal.service.WebAppRunner.runWebApp (line 48)

2024-11-12 16:30:08 Error in webappLaunchApp (line 106)

[Francisco Sacchetti]

Maxi Do you have some documentation about this aproach so I can try to find out why it does not work in matlab webapp?

Thank you for your help.

Regards,

Francisco

[Maxi]

Hallo Francisco,

Unfortunately, there is no "official" documentation of the class. When you type into your command window

doc mlapp.internal.MLAPPMetadataReader  

you will not find many informations.

I don't know where your problem is coming from as I haven't worked with web applications before.

Answer 2

[Taylor]

When you go to package the app there is a field for the version number.

When the app is installed, the user can view the version number by hovering over the app.

[Allen]

@Taylor, unfortunately your answer does not address the question being presented. @Maxi in addition to the a number of other App Creators are looking for a way to programmatically extract the version information entered into Version field when packaging an application. Currently, if a creator wants to provide a version display within their application that any user can readily access, this information must be hard coded into the application.

Speaking for myself and depending on how my application will be used, I may need to package the application into an .exe file and validate that version. Validated versions much be retained for audit purposes and use in accredited testing services that we provide. These validated executables also need to provide a means to display all necessary version information from with the application itself. Executable files do not have the ability to app icon in MATLAB since they run via runtime software and not MATLAB itself. Therefore I like to include a Help>About Application menu item that will display the author, application version, MATLAB version used to create the application, and the date the application was created. If I update my application it becomes cumbersome to the have to remember each and everytime to change all of the the hard coded information.

Forgetting to update the hard code version information happens too often and may not be noticed until well after the application has been released to an end-user. By utilizing the Version field when packaging and using a programmatic extraction approach, App creators would only need to update the version number in that single location, since it is obvious the application and/or executable files store this information when being packaged.

[Adee]

+1 for the exact same reasons. The version and related details of an executable application should be available to display in an "About" dialog - this is a "pattern" followed by practically all applications (including MATLAB's GUI).

Since the "Sharing details" information is not accessible programmatically, I need to store the version information in the code instead. This makes the "Sharing details" section mostly useless.

[Taylor]

@Maxi @Allen @Adee Is this more what you're looking for? https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/2050932-how-to-access-app-version-number-from-inside-the-app

[Adee]

@Taylor, it doesn't seem to work - the code you pointed to takes the version number from the executable file, not from the app designer metadata.

The information in "Sharing details" is not propagated to the execuable file by the Matlab compiler. The version number can be specified using the "-W" switch but it still poses the problem of how to get the right number from the mlapp file...

Also, these details should preferably be available when running the app under MATLAB (before it is deployed).

Answer 3

[Brian]

The below function is what I use to detect the application version and compile date from within an application. This uses the xml2struct function from the File Exchange (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/28518-xml2struct) to parse the installer file info.

function [ver,date] = CheckAppVersion
    % This function examines the installer info to determine the version number
    % and release date of an application

    if isdeployed
        [~, result] = system('path');
        p = char(regexpi(result, 'Path=(.*?);', 'tokens', 'once'));

        xmlLocation=fullfile(p,'..','uninstall','ApplicationInstallerManifest.xml');
        appInfo=xml2struct(xmlLocation);
        ver=appInfo.ApplicationInstallerManifest.Version.Text;

        file=dir(xmlLocation);
        date=datetime(file.date);
        date=char(datetime(date,'Format','dd-MMM-yyyy'));
    else
        fullpath=mfilename('fullpath');
        s=settings;

        if ~isempty(strfind(fullpath,s.matlab.addons.InstallationFolder.ActiveValue)) % If run from app
            [p,~]=fileparts(fullpath); psplit=strsplit(p,filesep);

            p=strjoin(psplit(1:find(strcmp(psplit,'Apps'))+1),filesep);

            if isfolder(fullfile(p,'resources'))
                xmlLocation=fullfile(p,'resources','addons_core.xml');
                appInfo=xml2struct(xmlLocation);
                ver=appInfo.addonCore.version.Text;

                file=dir(xmlLocation);
                date=datetime(file.date);
                date=char(datetime(date,'Format','dd-MMM-yyyy'));
            else
                ver='debug';
                date='dd-MMM-yyyy';
            end
        else % If run from MATLAB mlapp file
            ver='debug';
            date='dd-MMM-yyyy';
        end
    end
end